chapter3 · 060-ep60

Episode 60: Selector, Kohinata Maho

In a corner of the underground facility Black Gate used as a base was an observation room overlooking the combat area below through thick glass.

Natori Saku, who had served as a vanguard on the dungeon expedition Himuro Ren and the others once joined, fell to the floor only a few minutes after the battle started.

He had silently slipped out of the man's field of vision and was just about to drive the short blade in his right hand into the man's side.

But the blade had only torn the man's clothes when Natori's wrist was caught.

His body was lifted just like that and slammed headfirst into the concrete floor.

Before Natori could get up, the man's foot crushed down onto his neck.

A dull sound echoed.

Natori's body trembled once, then never moved again.

"That was quicker than I expected."

Watching the fight from the second-floor observation room, Kohinata Maho wrote something in the notebook spread across her lap.

A thin cardigan and a long skirt.

At her feet sat a tote bag with a university's name printed on it, its pencil case and thick specialized textbook peeking from inside.

Other than being in a place where someone had been killed, she looked only like a female graduate student on her way back from the lab.

"Natori-san looked at the exit door a few times during it, right? Was he checking whether he could run?"

"Most likely."

Standing beside her was Mikage Sōichirō, the man who led Black Gate.

A black suit and white shirt.

Even his tie was fastened without a gap, making him stand out in this place even more than Maho.

"But he didn't run."

"Had he run, we would have pursued him."

"Ah, I see. Maybe it wasn't that he didn't run. Maybe he knew running was pointless."

"Only he would know."

"Thinking about that is interesting."

Maho turned her eyes back to Natori, who no longer moved.

"It's interesting that he never asked for help until the end too. Had he already given up, or was there another reason?"

In the combat area, the man who killed Natori stared at empty space.

A display informing him of a Level increase was open in front of him.

He had received XP when he made Natori unable to fight.

But as Black Gate had confirmed many times, extra XP was granted immediately after taking his life.

In battles between Awakeners, defeating an opponent alone earned XP.

Killing them gave even more XP.

Only the man looking at the display knew how much it had increased this time.

Even so, the fact that he had leveled up alone showed that Natori's death had produced sufficient results.

"It went up."

The man's voice echoed through the combat area.

Hearing it, Maho looked back at Natori.

"Seems like he was pretty good XP."

After murmuring that with little interest, Maho looked at Mikage as though she had remembered something.

"But really, was it okay to kill him?"

"What do you mean?"

"That Natori person was a spy you planted on the government side, right?"

Maho pointed her pen at Natori's body on the floor.

"If you kept him inside the country, couldn't he have taught you all sorts of things still?"

"Previously, that would have been correct."

Mikage raised one hand.

Two waiting men entered the combat area and moved Natori's body onto a black bag.

"When we sent Natori-san undercover, we had no information. Not about the Awakener Development Program, the Gates controlled by the state, or the Awakeners being trained."

"So you put him inside the government side?"

"Yes. Our attempt to have Kanzaki and the others stop the Awakener Development Program was also to avoid a situation where only the government side increased its number of excellent Awakeners."

"...But now you have me?"

"Exactly."

Kohinata Maho was one of the eleven Achievers.

The role granted to her upon completing a Personal Achievement was 【Selector】.

She could turn up to three people she chose into Awakeners each day.

Selection required neither aptitude nor the person's consent, and it didn't matter whether they were good or evil.

If Maho chose them, that was all it took.

That was the kind of Observer she was.

Black Gate gathered candidates for Maho.

But the people Maho chose were not necessarily those who seemed suited to combat.

People whose professed goodwill did not line up with the desire in their hearts.

People whose way of thinking seemed likely to change greatly before and after gaining power.

Maho was interested in people like that.

As a psychology major, what she wanted to know was not how to save people.

Could they speak the same words after acquiring power?

When forced into a situation where they might die, what would they choose, and what reason would they use to convince themselves?

Maho joined Black Gate because it would let her observe those changes up close.

"There is no longer any need to draw away Awakeners under state management. There is no longer any need to stop the Awakener Development Program and restrain the government's numbers from growing."

Mikage turned to Maho.

"Have Kohinata-san choose them, make them fight here, and train the survivors. That will be enough."

Maho would increase the number of Awakeners, and Black Gate would make them fight.

The winners would get XP.

If they killed the losers, they would get even more XP.

The number of people would fall, but those who survived would grow at a speed impossible under government training.

What Mikage wanted were the powerful Awakeners left at the end.

What Maho wanted to see were the psychological changes in people facing power and death.

Their goals were not the same.

Even so, for now, they had reasons to use each other.

"Then couldn't you have kept Natori-san as a spy?"

"Someone who can bring us information from the government side is also someone who can take our information to the government side."

The opening of the bag containing Natori's body was closed.

"He learned of Kohinata-san's existence. He also learned how we train Awakeners. Since we no longer need information from the government side, there is no reason to return him."

"Did you think he would betray you?"

"No. Natori-san remained loyal to the end."

"Ah, I see."

Maho watched Natori disappear into the bag.

"He wasn't killed because he betrayed you. He was killed because his role was over."

"That is correct."

"Then maybe the reason he didn't run even when he looked at the door during the fight was that he wanted to protect his role to the end."

Maho moved her pen happily.

"He can stay loyal even when he's the one being killed. That's interesting."

"A covert agent whose role has ended is dangerous for that alone. It is less wasteful to use him to the end than to keep him alive."

Maho watched Mikage's profile.

"Mikage-san, you really like thinking about what people can be used for, don't you?"

"It is not that I like it. I only think about it because it is necessary."

"That's exactly it. Normal people wouldn't think, They're not useful anymore, so let's kill them."

"There is no need to be normal."

Maho smiled a little and added something to her notebook.

"You didn't need to help Kanzaki-san and Takatsuki-san?"

"There was no need. The places and contact methods they know are no longer in use."

A report that Kanzaki and Takatsuki had been arrested had already reached Black Gate.

Even so, Mikage did not try to get either of them back.

Now that the Selector had joined them, there was little reason to take risks to reduce the government's Awakeners.

They could now increase Awakeners within Black Gate and concentrate that XP on some of them.

"You don't need Takatsuki-san anymore either?"

"No. His role is over as well."

"But you used your Skill on Takatsuki-san, right, Mikage-san?"

"Only slightly."

Mikage's Job was 【Tuner】.

Originally, it was a support Job meant to suppress allies' agitation and raise their focus and morale.

Among its Skills was 【Emotional Guidance】.

A power that strengthened feelings the target already held and tilted how they received things in a single direction.

It could not implant feelings that did not exist, nor could it compel obedience.

Furthermore, it only worked on non-Awakeners.

"You made his distrust toward Representative Mibu stronger and made it easier for him to trust the politician who knew you, right?"

"Only to that degree."

"That alone made him betray him?"

"Takatsuki-san had already harbored doubts about Representative Mibu's policies. I only enlarged those doubts slightly and made it easier for him to trust another person."

"Then you had that politician tell him about Black Gate."

"Yes. Takatsuki-san himself likely believed he had chosen the more correct person."

After thinking a little, Maho smiled.

"Then Takatsuki-san doesn't think he was controlled."

"In truth, he was not controlled. He made the final choice himself."

"Mikage-san, that part of you is mean."

"What do you mean?"

"You make it seem like they chose it themselves, then leave all the responsibility with them too."

"It does not change that Takatsuki-san chose."

"That's why you're interesting, Mikage-san."

Maho let out a breath and changed the subject.

"So are you done fighting the country?"

"No. We are done moving in accordance with the country's actions."

"Mikage-san, you really hate the country."

Maho said it lightly.

Mikage did not deny it.

Then, as cleaning of the combat area was finishing, a man was brought into the second-floor observation room.

He was in his mid-thirties.

Perhaps he had come straight from work, as he was still in a suit. He stopped when he saw the faint bloodstains remaining in the combat area.

"What are you going to do here?"

The man spoke warily.

Maho closed her notebook and stood.

"Let's talk for a bit."

She offered him a chair by the wall and sat down opposite him.

"What do you want to do if you become an Awakener?"

"Can you really make me an Awakener?"

"I can."

"Does that mean I have aptitude?"

"Aptitude?"

Maho blinked in puzzlement.

"There's no such thing."

"Huh?"

"I can make anyone an Awakener."

The man's expression tightened.

"Then why am I here?"

"I haven't chosen yet."

Maho opened her notebook.

"I'm deciding now."

"Based on what?"

"Whether you seem interesting."

The man lost his words.

Maho continued asking questions regardless.

"What do you want to do if you gain power?"

"...I want to protect my family."

"Your wife and child?"

"Yes."

"Even if those two no longer needed you, would you still want to protect them?"

The man's answer came a little late.

"Of course."

"Ah, you thought a little just then."

"You suddenly asked something strange."

"Was that really all?"

Maho leaned in to peer at his face.

"Don't you want to be needed by your family, rather than wanting to protect them?"

"No."

"I'm not deciding that yet."

The man closed his mouth.

Maho smiled at his reaction.

"Yeah. Well, you barely pass."

"Does that... mean I've been chosen?"

"I guess. You'll do."

Maho stood from her chair and pressed her index finger to the man's forehead.

Pale light spread from her fingertip.

Several seconds later.

The man's gaze stopped in empty space.

"What is this...?"

He reached a hand into the air.

"A Status?"

"Congratulations."

Maho smiled as though genuinely happy.

"Now I can observe whether you'll say the same thing after gaining power."

A display opened in front of Maho.

【Observer: Selector】

【Today's remaining selections: 2】

"Two more today."

Mikage said.

"We have candidates prepared."

"Let me meet all of them."

"Of course. You are the one who chooses, Kohinata-san."

"You get it."

Maho closed her notebook with a smile.

Mikage took a smartphone from inside his suit.

"By the way, the other Achievers have begun to move."

"Oh, that video?"

"You saw it?"

"A little."

Mikage operated the screen, and the broadcast footage appeared on the observation room monitor.

A boy around middle-school age was on it.

He was right in the middle of explaining why he had not publicized Achievements until all eleven slots were filled.

If he told people while slots remained, they would compete over them.

People might search for reckless Achievements or get in the way of others completing them.

That would be dangerous.

The boy spoke with a calm face.

"What a waste."

"What is?"

"If he had told them there was only one slot left, we could have watched what everyone did."

"He likely wanted to avoid that."

"You get to know people better when they're cornered, though."

Maho watched the boy with genuine regret.

"But this kid is strange too."

"I do not believe he is as strange as you, Kohinata-san."

"How rude."

The boy revealed that he was a Gate Administrator.

When he actually created a Gate on screen, Maho's eyes shone.

"Wow, amazing."

The boy then said he could know the names and current locations of Achievers.

"Then this kid can see my name too."

Maho happily brought her face closer to the screen.

『All right then, Achievers. I'm going to come meet you all one at a time from now on~』

"Yes!"

Maho's expression brightened.

"That means this kid will come to me too."

Still smiling innocently, the boy ended the broadcast.

Even after the screen went dark, Maho didn't move from before the monitor.

"I wonder when he'll come. What kind of face will he make when he comes to meet me? I'm really looking forward to it."

As though the boy were still on it, Maho looked at the black screen and smiled quietly.

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With this, Chapter 3 is complete‼️

Everyone, thank you so very much for reading this far ✨️

Well, Chapter 3 may have divided opinions a little? lol

As Kogaryu, I put together about a whole book's worth of plot so you could enjoy a larger scale.

And that is why the story has its rises and falls. Dark developments, catharsis—something like that, but...

Maybe it didn't pair well with a serialized web novel (lol).

A good lesson.

Now, that's enough preamble; on to the main matter❗️

Chapter 4 is still being made earnestly, but I really haven't written the actual text yet...

I'd like to ask everyone to wait about one week 😇

So, for now, the plan is to begin posting Chapter 4 from August 1!

Also, on my activity note, I have posted a supporter-exclusive SS, 'The Day the Dungeon Was Made Kanzaki Jinya,' to commemorate the completion of Chapter 3, so please enjoy it 🙇

https://kakuyomu.jp/users/kouga0208

...And sorry, but I will also be changing the posting frequency to once every 2 days for the time being!

There are reasons for slowing the pace, at least.

① A baby baby 👶 was born into the Kogaryu household.

② The GA Web Contest started, so I've begun posting a new work. ← (This one is entirely the author's selfishness.)

That's that (lol).

『The Time Learning Magic in Another World Let Me Rise From a High School Dropout Moving-Company Part-Timer to the Top Escort of a Young Lady』

https://kakuyomu.jp/works/2912051600397486794

That is the new work ⬆️

Of course, I want to keep this work's quality from dropping too, so I would be happy to have your support!